The Legend of Stalvan

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Comment by nathanaelnsmith

Am I reading this right? Stalvan had the hots for some minor?creeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy......

Comment by awhit003

Am I reading this right? Stalvan had the hots for some minor? creeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy......

...She is on the cusp of womanhood now. Supposedly the Lord has arranged her marriage for next year...

The cusp being a point of transition, she is no longer a "girl" and now a "woman". It doesn't sound like he is too awfully old since he is only an apprentice going out into the world to build his knowledge and wisdom. So in my mind (granted I am seeing this as I would see it in today's society, not the society of old on which Stormwind is based), I see him in his early twenties and her in her late teens not more than 5 years apart in age.

Comment by toxoplasmosis

Tilloa is an anagram of Lolita, the girl who so famously infatuated an older man in the novel of the same name that we now refer to sexualised young girls/adolescents as "lolitas". So, yeah, creepy is probably an apropos adjective...

Comment by zillah975

Well, let's not forget that regardless of how far apart their ages, he apparently killed her because she didn't love him back. That's way past creepy.

Comment by Schnoodledorfer

This item consists of several letters and journal entries that are arranged in chronological order. They were originally found (and read by the player), piece by piece in a longer quest chain that was removed in Cata.

Stalvan had apparently been an apprentice at some point, but he had several jobs since then, so presumably he was fully an adult by the time of the latest entries. That may have been more obvious in the original quest series. Stalvan says that Tilloa was "on the cusp of womanhood." She refers to him as "Uncle Stalvan" and as an "old man," while Stalvan refers to her suitor (presumably about the same age as Tilloa) as a "young man," so there was apparently a significant age difference.

Tilloa apparently liked Stalvan, but had no romantic feelings for him. He just took things the wrong way. Rather than just accepting that he had misinterpreted things, he became incredibly angry. Stalvan's Copper Coin (not mentioned in Stalvan's letters) hints that Stalvan decided that Tilloa must really love him, but just didn't realize it, so he traveled to Dalaran to find a way to force her to. When the mages had the sense to not cooperate, he simply got angry with them and wished them harm. He used the term "inevitable fate" as if there was no possibility of him being wrong, showing how obsessed he was. Eventually Tilloa must have done something to convince Stalvan that she didn't love him, but then he decided that she had just been maliciously leading him on. That adds paranoia and transference on top of his obsession with her.

It's important to take into account that everything was written from Stalvan's warped point of view. The same thing was true with the book, Lolita, which was written as if the character Humbert Humbert had written it.